Dhaka – Leaders of the International Farakka Committee (IFC) have urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the occasion of the historic Farakka Long March Day to take an initiative to ensure natural flow of water in Bangladesh’s rivers.
The IFC leaders said that the nomination of the Prime Minister to the special committee on Water of the United Nations along with 9 other statesmen of the world has created a unique advantage for her to pursue the Bangladesh case for natural flow of rivers. They recalled that it was at the initiative of the Prime Minister that the issue of maritime boundary with Burma and India was settled.
On 16 May the Farakka Long March Day, seminars and discussion meetings were organised in New York, (USA), United Kingdom, Canada; at different district, divisional towns and capital Dhaka in Bangladesh.
The New York meeting was presided over by IFC chairman Atiqur Rahman Eusufzai Salu. Eminent journalist and editor of weekly Ajkal Manzur Ahmed was the chief guest at the meeting which was addressed by eminent journalists Moinuddin Naser, Zainul Abedin, left activist Ali Imam Shikdar; Kazi Azharul Huq Milon, former vice president, Faruk Hossain Majumder, vice president, Abdur Rahim Hawladar, general secretary of the Bangladesh Society, freedom fighter Nurul Islam, communist activist Mosharraf Hossain, Rafiqul Islam and Sarwar Khan Babu among others.
The speakers called for unity irrespective of party affiliations among the people to establish their rights of water of common rivers. They urged the Prime Minister to make use of her position as member of the UN committee on water to resolve the water issue.
The speakers said that unilateral withdrawal of water in India has turned the Bangladesh catchments of the Ganges and the Testa dry setting in motion a process of desertification. On the other hand India has become vocal against China’s move to divert Brahmaputra water and has vendicated the longstanding problem of Bangladesh, the lowest riparian country of the eastern Himalayan rivers.
It’s time to tell all others that world’s biggest delta Bangladesh cannot survice without natural flow of the rivers. Rivers on the other hand have to be kept alive in order to benefit from their services. There is thus no alternative to ensure sustainable management of the rivers through joint collaboration of all the co-riparian countries – Nepal, Bhutan, India, China and Bangladesh, the speakers added.
IFC Bangladesh chapter leaders joined a mass rally organised at Rajshahi Lalon Manch, organised by the Farakka Long March Obsrvance Committee which brought out a special compilation, organised a children’s painting competition and opinion-exchange meetings to mark the day.
The mass rally presided over by Advocate Enamul Huq, was addressed by Gonoshasthya Kendra founder Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury, UBINIG chief Farhad Mozhar, IFC Bangladesh president Prof. Jasim Uddin Ahmad, sr vice president Dr. SI Khan, general secretary, Syed Irfanul Bari, IFC vice chairman Awlad Hossain Khan, and coordinator Mostafa Kamal Majumder.
They called of integrated management of the Himalayan rivers to protect the environment, life and and livelihood of the people of the region. – News Desk
